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Dinde Chinese Investment – Villagers Resist Displacement

Dinde villagers fear being placed on their land for coal mining activities. Image by Unsplash


BY CALVIN MANIKA | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | MAR 19, 2021

Displacements of communities to pave way for mining have become all too familiar in the country, but villagers in Dinde say they will not allow it.


HWANGE (The Citizen Bulletin) — On 5 February this year, the Chinese company Beifer Investments arrived with their machinery in Dinde to begin operations. Reports indicate that they were accompanied by the local Chief and a local businessman to start a coal mining project but the villagers resisted.

Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG), received a distress call from the community to which they responded by visiting Dinde village to gather information about events unfolding there.


“We received a distress call from the Dinde Community in Hwange. Some Chinese nationals teamed up with the local Chief and local businessman to start a coal mining project in Dinde communal lands.”
Centre for Natural Resources Governance


“We responded to the Macedonian call for help by visiting Dinde. We interviewed the villagers,” says CNRG in a statement.

According to Dinde Residents, from February 2019 to December 2019, a team of Chinese nationals toured the village without engaging locals. In December 2019, the same team brought some lightweight machinery and set up a camp behind one Emelia Mukombwe’s homestead, where they intended to start drilling. It is said; the Chinese company intended to drill 13 holes in a straight line of a 1, 9 kilometre stretch which would cause ecological destruction.

The Citizen Bulletin learnt that, thereafter, the Chinese investors returned to Dinde with several officers from the EMA, Hwange Rural District Council, Traditional Leadership, police, and army to coerce the villagers.

Speaking to this publication Dinde Residents Association Chairperson Atanas Shoko says they cannot allow displacement from their ancestral land.

“This is our home and we have nowhere to go. We cannot allow being forced out of our land. Moreover, the project is destructive to the environment. There are many places these investors can go and mine, away from villages. Actually, no one, even from our local leadership engaged us on what is happening. There was no consultation, we feel disrespected as a people in Dinde. We will keep on fighting for our land and resist invasion,” he says.

Chinese companies are allegedly putting pegs in cattle pens and fields without consulting the locals. Image by Greater Hwange Residents


The coal mining project investment is being resisted in a rural area characterised by unemployment and underdevelopment. Despite several efforts by the Chinese company Beifer Investments to start business in Dinde theirs ‘is a mission impossible’ as villagers are citing a lack of community involvement in the projects which affect their villages and community at large.

It has emerged that there has been no form of consultation from the initial visit to date. The involvement of government departments backing the Chinese investors is being met with resistance. In the face of the opposition by the villagers, the investors purport to have papers, a special grant to do a coal mining project. A recent visit to Dinde opened a can of worms about the standoff between the two warring parties.


“We haven’t been consulted and it seems the investor does not have the capacity to relocate and compensate the villagers and has not made any commitments to connect electricity and improve the infrastructure.”
Resident who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation


The targeted area covers 5 villages and affects about 600 homesteads. The site also covers areas with a cattle sale pen, graves, grazing areas, a school, a clinic and Inyantuwe river which is the village’s only source of water. According to Dinde Residents Association, Hwange RDC Chief Executive Officer, Mr Phindile Ncube told them that the Chinese had a Special Grant for exploration when they had visited the offices to seek clarifications about the project that has caused turmoil in the area.

On the 11th of June 2020, the Chinese are said to have returned to Dinde village again, this time in the company of Chief Charles Nekatambe, a Ncube whose first name could not be established and a Chilota Colliery Company (Pvt) Limited proprietor, Mr Lazarus Kwidini.

The trio has been accused of barring interaction between the locals and the Chinese nationals.


ALSO READ: Hwange Children Demand Inclusion In Budgetary Processes


Hwange MP, Hon Daniel Molokele has expressed concerns over the developments in Dinde.

“There is a need for a clear public consultation of all concerned stakeholders. As the MP of the Hwange constituency, all the mines were opened without me being consulted or invited. It’s like I don’t exist. It’s the same now with this Dinde issue. There are a lot of secrets on mining activities, hence excluding the community in their decisions,” he says.

MP for Hwange West Hon Tonse Siansole echoed similar sentiments saying that he is worried about many people coming to mine in the district.

“The government is issuing special grants without consulting locals. Mining should not be prioritised at the expense of locals,” he says.  

According to the Mines and Minerals Act, in Zimbabwe, special grants are issued by the President in respect of land reserved for that purpose.

Meanwhile, Mines Minister Winston Chitando was expected to be in Dinde on the 25th of February to address the community. Chitando's visit follows an aborted meeting between the DA and villagers scheduled for the 13th of February which failed to take place as the number of residents, which turned up was higher than the 30 allowed under COVID-19 regulations.

Another disgruntled villager said: “It will be interesting to know whether the minister is going to reaffirm the Zimbabweans' right to their ancestral heritage or he will threaten us in favour of their Chinese friends like what is happening right now.”

According to the CNRG, Dinde villagers could be affected in the same way the Marange community in Manicaland was affected and displaced by diamond mining.

Miners digging for diamond in Marange where about 12 000 hectares of farm settlement was cleared for mining. Image by AP


“We cannot be a sovereign country that allows so-called investors to come and evict our people from their homes willy-nilly,” Farawu Maguwu, Director of CNRG says. Maguwu says CNRG has engaged ZLHR to stop evictions.


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